New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday
issued notice to city police on Nitish Katara murder case
convict Vikas Yadav seeking interim bail for the marriage of
his sister.
A division bench headed by Justice Anil Kumar also
issued notice to the Tihar Jail authorities and asked for
details about the number of days Vikas Yadav has spent in jail
by October 20.
Appearing for Vikas, his counsel Sumit Verma submitted
that his client`s presence was required at home as elder
brother of Bharati Yadav for the wedding on November 1.
Citing the cases of Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, in
which prime accused R K Sharma was granted bail for his
daughter`s marriage, Verma said in other sensitive murder
cases the convicts have been granted bail to attend family
functions and his client is also entitled to bail for his
sister`s marriage.
Vikas, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D
P Yadav, was convicted along with his cousin Vishal Yadav for
kidnapping and murdering Katara, a close friend of Bharati.
Vikas and Vishal were convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment by the trial court on May 28 last year.
The duo had kidnapped and killed Katara, son of an IAS
officer, on the intervening night of February 17-18, 2002
after abducting him from a marriage party in Ghaziabad as they
were against the relationship between the victim and Bharati.
The trial of the case was transferred to Delhi by the
Supreme Court after Katara`s mother Neelam had expressed
apprehension that she will not get a fair trial in Uttar
Pradesh.
Bharati, who had left for United Kingdom after the
incident and had been avoiding to depose as witness in the
case finally turned up in 2006 to record her statement after
the trial court had issued non-bailable warrant against her.
The convict, who have been in jail since their arrest
in 2002, has never succeeded in getting bail.
Their plea in the Supreme Court that the appeals filed
by them against their conviction should be heard by the
Allahabad High Court had also been rejected.
Bureau Report
